Dolan: Catholic Church needs better outreach to gays

3/31/13 9:35 AM EDT

Cardinal Timothy Dolan acknowledged on Sunday that there was still much to do to make the church welcoming to gay and lesbian Catholics.

"We gotta do better to see that our defense of marriage is not reduced to an attack on gay people. And I admit, we haven't been too good at that. We try our darndest to make sure we're not an anti-anybody," he said in an interview to be aired Sunday on ABC's "This Week.".

But the archbishop of New York said he wasn't sure how that outreach might work.

"I don't know. We're still trying. We're trying our best to do it. We got to listen to people," he said. "Jesus died on the cross for them as much as he did for me."

But Dolan, who recently participated in the conclave that elected Pope Francis, reiterated his position that marriage should be defined as between a man and a woman.

"Sexual love... is intended only for a man and woman in marriage, where children can come about naturally," he said.

Still, Dolan acknowledged, "Sometimes we're not as successful or as effective as we can be in translating that warm embrace into also teaching what God has told us about the way He wants us to live."